Google to Spend $100M on SMB Acquisition

Google is running a promotion through the end of the year, worth $100 million, to directly acquire small business advertisers:

What’s significant here beyond the aggregate amount of the incentive is the ability to have a rep set up the campaign (DIFM). This is part of Google’s larger move toward outbound telephone sales and service vs. an almost complete self-service orientation in the past.

What we’re seeing at Google is a significant commitment to the local market and a related internal cultural shift. I met with Google reseller chieftain Todd Rowe the other day and was impressed by the effort he described that the company was making toward SMB advertiser acquisition on multiple fronts. Unlike in the past Google now really seems to understand the SMB market and what it will take to succeed.

Rowe cited data that 70% of companies that enter the SMB market fail. The three success factors he mentioned were: internal organizational alignment (sales and marketing), multiple channel strategy and the right product(s). Google is now good to go on the first two.

The only question in my mind is whether the products offered are aligned with the perceived needs of business owners?

12 Responses to “Google to Spend $100M on SMB Acquisition”

It seems that the last $100 Gift Card promotion in August did not do the trick. Nor did the “Train and Gain” promotion in November. Looks to me that Google is struggling to boost their Adwords service and they are setting up more and more promotions to entice business owners to sign up. Then again, I never know exactly what there up to.

Greg: I wonder if scope of Boost versus size/volume of market has some impact in seeing boost ads.

By that I mean..the current monthly limit on boost is, I believe around $1400/month. (not sure about that). Suppose attorneys are spending $10k/month thru adwords. The boost ads would be showing at a fraction of overall shows.

In speaking with a boost rep, I got the impression that sales were active in Houston and active with some already active adwords accts.

This is all conjecture at this point with regard to actually seeing boost ads. I’ve checked also and have seen 2 after a lot of searches.

OTH: maybe they just aren’t selling 😀

But…based on my guess above, I’m going to search in the evening when overall searches/clicks/impressions should be less. Maybe they’ll start showing up more often…

Greg, Google is definitely using telephone sales for Boost and Tags. I can confirm this on two fronts. The first is clients being called and the second is being called myself. The pitch is simple and effective. I would love to know the adoption rate. We can only estimate based on manual searches, but tags are starting to show for a lot of searches.

Meet you in the heartland behind the school, GOOG. PPC ads are a different value proposition than hyper local directories. $3 per day buys a full page ad in a community directory that is serviced in person by a well trained specialist, professionally designed and typeset ad, printed, bound, mailed (using real postage) in a reference guide that is USED by 15,000 residents of a tight-knit community. The same $3 will buy a single GOOG click regardless if the clicker is the businesses’ competitor, an interloper in a far off land, or the perplexed business owner checking to see if it still works. Game, set, match.

[…] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant […]

[…] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant […]

[…] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant […]

[…] but that is because local businesses need more hand-holding when it comes to online marketing. As Greg Sterling pointed out when the campaign kicked off in mid-December: What we’re seeing at Google is a significant […]